Consider this week your preview into what is ahead: Welcome to Season 2 of Lucky to Be Here!
But there is more to this newsletter, as always. The title of today’s newsletter is looking back and paying it forward for a few reasons, some of them personal.
Here are the personal reasons: It is quite incredible for me to look back and think about exactly a year ago, when I first launched Lucky to Be Here, and how much this project has brought to me and many others since. To be completely blunt with you, there have been so many things in the past almost two years that have not really worked, either as I was hoping for, or at all. But this is one that keeps me going: to see the power of our stories as we share them, to hear the impact this work has had on all of us and read how you receive them, to be together in community as we discuss on and off the mic all the different sides of building lives and careers abroad, or even in your home country, but with the same sense of curiosity and uncertainty of walking into uncharted territory. This is where looking back has been powerful.
But as you have heard and read me say often, this project also started as one more way for me to turn any win of mine into a resource for all of us. Paying it forward has been at the heart of this and so many other projects. For our second season, it gets amplified. In Season 2 of Lucky to Be Here, we continue sharing stories of people who built lives and careers across countries… but we also get tactical, and we share how they have also built resources, communities, and businesses to support others. You will hear stories of immigrants across countries who became immigration lawyers, those who have since built regional communities focused on remote work, others who became international moving coaches to support others in the process of moving, some who, like me, built platforms and spaces for discussions on immigration, and even some whose dreams may also have been constrained by immigration regulation, but who still found their path into supporting others in some of the systems that shape our day to day, like taxes and healthcare.
The goal of this season remains the same: we want to understand and connect with one another through our stories, while finding hope and inspiration to build our own paths and feel less alone along the way. But knowledge is power, and this season, we want to bring the stories and the resources that can help us along the way. You have a heads up! Now make sure you are subscribed wherever you listen or watch Lucky to Be Here to get the episodes, or keep an eye out on your inbox for my emails with the link to our YouTube episodes as they drop.
For today’s reflection, I want to invite you to take this idea of “looking back and paying it forward” one step further. Here is what I mean: Sometimes when we hear stories of others who have created a path of their own, or built something anew, we get this little voice in our heads that may say “oh but I could never…” or a more insidious one like “I wish I was like them…”. The truth is that if we look back, we might find examples that counter those inner voices, but they are hidden. I see this as those reels or TikTok videos of deep carpet cleaning that I often come across (I will not apologize for finding them fascinating): at first, there are so many layers of dirt and residue that you have no idea what the rug might even look like, and then the process is messy… but along the way you start discovering what is underneath.
Well, today I invite us all to do some deep carpet cleaning in our minds to reconnect with a specific type of example: When looking back to your experience, recent or down memory lane, what have you learned and done over time that has served you and others, paying it forward? It does not have to be a big example, it can be as small as learning to use a system at work that you then shared with other colleagues. Or the one way of making a soft boiled egg in the air fryer that you swear by (yes, that’s self-referential, reply back and I’ll share the trick).
Ultimately, here is the secret about the spirit behind this invitation: our value goes beyond the big headline achievement or the next milestone we aim to reach. We are who we are in its entirety, and through that is how we bring value to ourselves and others.
What stayed with you after this reflection? Reply to this email to share with me and continue our discussion in between episodes. Our first episode of Lucky to Be Here Season 2, with an already familiar face, will land on your inbox in a couple of weeks.
See you then!